April 24, 2025

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April 24, 2025

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AMCHP Announcements

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Introducing AMCHP Policy Alerts: New Name, Same Purpose

We are pleased to share that AMCHP’s Legislative Alerts will now be known as Policy Alerts!

With this new name, we aim to better reflect the full scope of the content it provides. Policy Alerts deliver sensitive announcements and timely information on issues spanning Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary Branch that affect maternal and child health (MCH). These updates continue to inform our members and the broader MCH community of key legislative and regulatory developments, as well as AMCHP’s advocacy efforts to support essential MCH programs.

While the name is changing, the purpose remains the same: to ensure you are informed and equipped to engage in the ever-evolving policy landscape that impacts MCH.

Register for Upcoming Webinar on The Illinois Family Recovery Plans Implementation Task Force Act

Join us on Tuesday, May 6, from 2-3 PM ET to explore the Illinois Family Recovery Plans Implementation Task Force Act, an innovative policy establishing a coordinated, public health, and service-integrated approach to address the substance use treatment needs of infants born with prenatal substance exposure and their caregivers.

Participants will gain insight into the origins and legislative journey of the Act, its intended impact, and the critical role of cross-sector partnerships in its implementation. The session will also provide strategies and lessons learned for other states interested in developing similar policies to enhance their health and child welfare systems to improve outcomes for families affected by substance use disorder.

Speakers:

Dr. Ruchi Fitzgerald, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry/Behavioral Sciences at Rush University, Associate Program Director of the Rush University Addiction Medicine Fellowship
Dr. Veena Ramaiah, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Child Advocacy and Protective Services, The University of Chicago & Biological Sciences

Share Your Insights: AYAH Data Assessment Now Open!

Understanding and addressing the needs of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) requires strong, accessible, and actionable data. We’re excited to launch the Adolescent and Young Adult Health (AYAH) Data Assessment, part of the AMCHP project Building Capacity of State Public Health Departments to Access, Strengthen, and Use Data to Better Inform Service Provision for AYAs.

We want to hear from Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (MCAH) program and epidemiology staff about:

How you use non-federal and qualitative AYAH data sources
Challenges and gaps in accessing and applying AYAH data
Support and resources needed to improve data use

Your feedback will shape future tools, training, and resources to better meet AYA health needs.

Who should participate: Program and Epidemiology staff supporting state/jurisdictional, local, and/or tribal AYAH programs
Time to complete: About 10 minutes

Take the Assessment

Questions? Contact epieval@amchp.org.

Recent AMCHP Announcements

AMCHP Annual Conference

AMCHP 2025 Banner.

Thank you to the nearly 1,000 maternal and child health (MCH) leaders and thinkers who joined us in Washington, DC from March 15-18 for our 2025 AMCHP Annual Conference!

Subscribe to our Annual Conference Newsletter to be the first to receive updates and information about our conference in 2026, and share the subscribe link with your peers!

Revisit AMCHP 2025: View our Photo Gallery

AMCHP would like to extend our gratitude to the nearly 1,000 MCH leaders and thinkers who attended AMCHP 2025 in Washington, DC, making our annual conference again one of the largest gatherings of MCH professionals in the U.S.

Did you enjoy your time at AMCHP 2025? Look back at the many powerful moments and unforgettable memories we captured at our conference by viewing our full photo gallery, now available on our website!

Respond to the AMCHP 2025 Post-Conference Evaluation Survey by May 1

Graphic promoting AMCHP 2025 post-conference evaluation survey. Text says: We want your feedback, Let us know about your experience at #AMCHP2025 via our conference evaluation survey. Questions? Email epieval@amchp.org

If you attended AMCHP 2025, please check your inbox for a direct email containing a post-conference evaluation link from Qualtrics. This evaluation is extremely important for AMCHP to ensure your feedback is considered when planning the next conference experience.

Please complete the survey to the best of your ability by May 1, as your valuable input will help our conference planning committee serve you better.

Did you not receive the survey in your inbox?

Please check your spam or junk folder. If you still don’t see it, please email us at epieval@amchp.org to request a copy of the evaluation link.

Save the Date for AMCHP 2026

Save the date to attend the 2026 AMCHP Annual Conference from March 7 – 10, 2026, in Washington, DC. Interested in getting all the details once they become available? Subscribe to our conference newsletter so you don’t miss out!

Legislation & Policy

Explore our Maternal & Child Health Bill Tracker for more information about pending federal legislation to improve maternal health. Also, download AMCHP’s 2024 Federal Policy Agenda, which outlines where we have focused our advocacy work.

Subscribe to AMCHP’s Policy Alerts and Digest to stay up to date with the latest policy information.

AMCHP Leads Advocacy Efforts Supporting the Title V MCH Block Grant and Medicaid

AMCHP continues to advocate for $1 billion in FY 2026 funding for the Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant and to protect Medicaid. On April 9, AMCHP Board President Dawn Bailey submitted testimony to Congress urging robust investment in Title V. AMCHP also co-led a sign-on letter with nearly 50 organizations, calling on Congress to reject proposals to cut, restructure, or restrict access to Medicaid.

Read the full Policy Alert to learn more about our advocacy efforts and access the testimony and sign-on letter.

AMCHP Policy and Partnerships Town Halls

Thank you to those of you who joined us for our AMCHP Policy and Partnerships Town Halls in April! You can find the full recordings of past Town Halls on our Government Affairs webpage.

Town Halls occur on the second Thursday of every month from 2-3 PM ET, including our next meeting, May 8. We invite you to register for all future Town Halls at this registration link.

Opportunities & Funding

AMCHP Career Center: Connecting Talent with Opportunity

AMCHP lists the top jobs available in our industry. Access the AMCHP Career Center to search and apply for open positions or post your jobs and opportunities! Search for Jobs | Post a Job.

Publications & Resources

New Report Available: State of Maternity Care in U.S. Hospitals – The Leapfrog Group 2025 Report on Trends

The Leapfrog Group’s 2025 Maternity Care Report is now live. The data, gathered from over 1,700 hospitals across the U.S. that provide maternity care, highlights key trends and challenges:

NTSV C-section rates remain high and have not improved;
For the first time, hospitals reported disparities in C-section rates by race and ethnicity—one in five hospitals report differences between Black and White patients;
Episiotomy rates have improved by 73% since Leapfrog began reporting in 2012;
Most hospitals (85.9%) have policies to prevent early elective deliveries; and
The majority of hospitals now offer evidence-based maternity care services such as doulas and lactation consultants.

This data is publicly available for free, by hospital, at the Leapfrog Group’s website. Download the one-pager with actionable steps patients can take to improve maternity care.

Center for Maternal and Child Health Medicaid Partnerships Website and Customized Technical Assistance Available

The Center for Maternal and Child Health Medicaid Partnerships (CMMP) website is available to all states to support their efforts to strengthen partnerships between their Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Title V program. Learn more about how Title V programs can partner with Medicaid programs to improve maternal and child health outcomes and stay in the know about upcoming opportunities!

CMMP also offers Customized Technical Assistance (TA) to all states that submit a request to address challenges to coordination and collaboration and pursue opportunities for increased efficiency across programs. This support is available at no cost – TA requests can be submitted through the Technical Assistance Request Form on the CMMP website.

If you have any questions about the CMMP, please email the team at CMMP@altarum.org.

Explore MotherToBaby Fact Sheets, Developed in Partnership with AMCHP, and Join AMCHP’s Town Hall

MotherToBaby provides evidence-based information about the risks and benefits of various exposures, including medications, vaccines, chemicals, herbal products, substances, maternal health conditions, and more during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. Its no-cost information service is available in English and Spanish to people who are pregnant and/or breastfeeding, their family members, health professionals, and the general public via chat, text, phone, and e-mail.

In partnership with AMCHP, MotherToBaby has developed evidence-based fact sheets on rheumatic heart disease, group A strep, and group B strep. These educational resources outline what is known about these exposures in pregnancy and lactation and provide more information to healthcare providers and patients who are affected by these conditions.

For more information about rheumatic heart disease, group A strep, group B strep, and other exposures in pregnancy and lactation, please visit MotherToBaby’s website to access free resources or contact a specialist. We also invite you to learn more about MotherToBaby during the upcoming AMCHP Policy & Partnerships Town Hall on May 8.

New 2022-2023 NSCH Data Sets and Codebooks are Available Now!

Data from the 2023 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) is now available on the Data Research Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DRC) website. Learn how children in your state are doing on more than 400 child health measures, including NOMs, NPMs, and Standardized Measures. Explore more about the newest subgroup additions: an expanded measure of children with special health care needs and a measure on child flourishing.

Also, check out the latest measure, the Whole Child Risk Index. The overall composite measure has separate scores for social health risks, medical health risks, and relational health risks and provides a powerful look at how overlapping risks may be associated with health problems among children.

For more information and resources about the NSCH, such as fast facts, guide to topics and questions, changes across years, survey methodology, survey instruments, and more, please visit the DRC NSCH Overview page. There are also numerous resources available at HRSA MCHB’s NSCH webpage.

The NSCH is a national survey, funded and directed by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (HRSA MCHB), that provides rich data on multiple, intersecting aspects of children’s health and well-being – including physical and mental health, access to and quality of health care, and the child’s family, neighborhood, school, and social context. Request NSCH datasets in SAS, Stata, and SPSS formats with accompanying codebooks on the DRC website.

The DRC is brought to you by the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI). For more information, take a short video tour or contact the CAHMI-DRC team through the Ask Us a Question page.